Category Archives: Microsoft Students to Business
Microsoft Students to Business
Realize your dreams with the Student to Business Program.
Are you a graduating student looking for formative work experience in the IT field? Are you a Microsoft partner hoping to recruit students with the skills to meet the demands of today´s technology industry? Are you a professor at a University teaching Microsoft technology competencies? Welcome to the S2B program, a community initiative involving Microsoft, State Governments, Microsoft Partners and leading universities.
Our goal is to help students enhance their career opportunities by providing them with training opportunities, helping them obtain globally recognized certifications and providing them with the platform to showcase their ideas to the world
Great ideas need not be confined to the garage.
The mission of the Academic Projects Program is to inspire students in India to innovate, solve key computing challenges and make them more productive in their IT jobs from day one. The program will be a learning experience beyond compare.
Who can sign up?
If you are a student working on the Microsoft platform or using any of the Microsoft technologies sign up your project with us.
Why sign up?
Not only will we take you through an experience of how software is built in the industry but also provide you with the opportunity to showcase you at a State/National Level Project Fair.And did we mention that the top 25 teams will get a cash prize of INR 10000/- each.
Why register your academic project with Microsoft?
- Leverage Microsoft expertise to help you produce a world-class solution.
- Gain access to the latest Microsoft technologies (students registering for the program will be able to download the latest software from the software section of the site).
- Receive Microsoft merit certificates (all teams that complete the project will get a certificate).
- Enhance your CV before you start work in the IT industry.
- Get an opportunity to showcase your project at State level and National level expo.
- The Top 25 teams will win a cash prize of INR 10000/- each.
How to get Started?
All you need to get started is a smart idea (we have a bunch of good project topics that you can find in the Projects Pool and 2-3 teammates and a project mentor. If you are already working on a project with an industry partner as part of your academic requirement, you can submit the same project to us. You do not need to work on a fresh project for this program. If you do not have a project mentor, you can still register your project as a hobbyist project. If you are already working on a project with an industry partner as part of your academic requirement, you can submit the same project to us. You do not need to work on a new project for this program. Your project should be targeted for the Microsoft platform. There is no requirement to use any specific programming languages or software. This means that you can submit a project written in Java or PHP as well, as long as the project runs on Microsoft Windows operating system. You can also look at interoperatibility between Microsoft and other platforms as project topics. Since different colleges across the country have different schedules we have two tracks that you can choose for doing the project. If your college project starts in the odd semester you can participate in the one year program. However, if you college project only starts in even semester or if you have missed submitting the project in the one year program you can participate in the six month program. Both programs provide the same benefits only the deadlines are different
Academic Year (2007 – 2008)
| One year program | Six months program | |
| Registrations | 17th August to 15th November | 15th November to 31st January |
| Synopsis(idea) submission (2 pages) | 15th November | 1st February |
| Project Report (20 – 100 pages) | 15th February | 28th February |
| Mentor Feedback | 28th February | 28th February |
| Microsoft Review Results | 15th March | 15th March |
| Project Fair for top teams | April | April |
Click here to register your project
Templates for submitting synopsis, detailed report and collecting mentor feedback will soon be available under the Downloads section of the website.
General Questions
How is S2B different from MSAPP (Microsoft Academic Projects Program)?
MSAPP is just one part of Students2Business. S2B is about helping students be more successful and have a great head start in their careers. The S2B program will provide the following –
- Technical training– Agenda about student trainings being done in partnership with State governments, online webcasts, academic developer conference, other Microsoft events and links to resources that we think are the most important to students.
- Soft Skills trainings– We aspire to provide some good content to help students improve their communication, leadership and management skills. These as all of you know are things skills without which you cannot reach the top.
- Academic Projects– This is the equivalent of the MSAPP program. However this time we want you to submit the projects that you are working on to us instead of working on project topics given by us. The objective is to identify the great work that happens in our academic institutions from all of you and provide you with a platform to showcase this to the world. The best projects will be invited to showcase their projects at state and national level expos. Various deadlines for the academic projects are available on the website.
- Industry Projects– Look out at this space for internships and projects with Microsoft and our partners. Since this is the first time that we are doing this, we might not have a lot of opportunities to start with but we think that the number of projects that we are able to provide to you from here will grow exponentially once our partners see the smart students that they can reach through S2B.
- Software Access– Access to the latest tools and technologies from Microsoft that you need to design a world class project.
Registration and Team Formation
I cannot find my college in the list. Can I register for the program?
If you cannot find your college in our list, you have an option to request to add your college in our list and complete your registration process. We periodically review all the request that we have received and will add your college to the database if it meets our criteria. You will then have full access to all the features of the website. In case for some reason we do not accept your college, your registration will not be completed and we will send you an email informing you of the same. In this case you will need to re-register to the site.
Projects
What is the difference between Academic Projects and Industry Projects?
The objective of academic projects is to provide students with an opportunity to submit their projects that they are already working on to Microsoft and aims to take the students through the different stages involved in working on software projects. On the other hand the objective of industry projects is to provide students with an opportunity to work on real world projects and internships defined by Microsoft or its partners. We will be posting up industry projects/internships as and when they become available to us.
What kind of projects can I submit to Microsoft?
You can submit any project that you are already working on. There is no need to work on a new project just to take part in S2B program. The only requirement is that there should be one Microsoft technology being used. This means you can submit a Java project of a PHP website if they run on Windows. The aim of our academic project is to focus more on the idea and less on the tools that are being used for implementing it.
How do we sign up/register a academic project?
You require the follow the following steps to register a academic project –
- 1. On the S2B site, on the left hand side you fill find a “Signup” button to signup using your Live ID. If you do not have a Live ID you will have an option of creating one.
- 2. If you have not previously registered to the site then once you sign in you will have to register with us by providing additional information (college details, email address etc)
- 3. You will then have to confirm your registration by clicking on the link in the email that S2B will send to you email address.
- 4. Once you are registered, please click the Academic Projects and you will now see a sub-menu which will allow you to start a new project.
- 5. Click the “Start New Project” link to form your team and register your project with us. You can register multiple projects with us.
have got an invitation from a friend to join a project. What do I do next?
If a friend of yours has invited you to his/her project, you will get an email asking you to accept the invitation. Once you click this, you will be directed to the S2B website where you will need to sign in using your Live ID (in case you do not have a Live ID then you will require to create one as part of the registration process). In case you have not registered to the S2B portal before you will have to complete the registration process. Once you complete the registration process you will be added to the team and you will be able to see the project in your “My Projects” section under Academic Projects.
How many students are required to do project? Can I work alone on my project?
The minimum number of members required for a project is different for different types of projects. For a academic project there can be between 2-4 members in a team and hobbyist project can have between 1-4 members.
Do I require a mentor for registering my project?
There are two types of projects under “Academic Projects”
- Academic Project – Project done as part of course requirement
- Hobbyist Project – Project done outside the academic course
If you want to register an academic project then a mentor is required who can evaluate the project. This should not be a problem in any project that you do as part of academic requirements should have some faculty member who can be your mentor. For hobbyist project no mentors are required.
What is the difference between Academic Project and Hobbyist Project?
Academic Project is a project that you do as part of requirement of your course study. Typically this will be either a final year project or a pre-final year mini-project that is required by most universities. Any other project that you do to learn about new technologies or participate in competitions at college or inter-college level will fall under hobbyist category. Certificates will be provided for both category of projects if you complete all the stages of the project.
If I choose a hobbyist project, does my chance of coming at an expo decrease?
No, projects under both the category have an equal chance for being selected for the expo.
Will Microsoft provide me with a mentor/guide for the project? Will there be someone to whom I can ask my doubts?
No guide/mentor will be provided to anyone as part of the academic or industry projects. In case you have doubts you can post them at our forum http://www.microsoft.com/samvaad . We have a very strong and vibrant student community who can help you if you get stuck while working on the project.
Will I received a feedback on my project?
Based on the mentor evaluations we will be short listing projects for detailed review. Only these projects will be provided with feedback.
When will I get the certificates for this year (2007-08)?
Projects will be given out after the project expos are complete. We are working on a system such that you can download an print your own certificate so as to avoid delay or loss of certificates. Link to print your certificate will be provided to you towards the end of this academic year.
Do I get a participation certificate?
Certificates will be given to students who complete all the stages of the project. No credit will be given to any individual/team who does not complete the project and they will not get any participation certificates.
Does my chance for an expo decrease if I choose an existing project topic?
If you choose one of the existing definitions and submit the same to S2B the chance for being invited to expo is a little less since we want to showcase innovative ideas. If you do well and complete the project, you will get a certificate but unless the implementation is really different it will stand a less chance for being selected. The project topics are given to students so that they can see the kind of projects that we want to see and use them as an idea to build on. So if you want to compete for a place in the expo we suggest that you either work on a cool implementation and explore areas to extent the current project definition or submit a totally different idea.
Will I receive money/stipend for working on projects?
No stipend is provided for working on academic projects. Information about stipend/prize provide in case of industry project will be provide with each project.
Can I do more than one project at a time?
Yes you can do multiple projects (including academic, hobbyist and industry) at the same time. Each project that you do can have a different team and you will get a certificate for all the projects that you complete successfully.
My teammates have not received an invitation. What can I do?
You can send a reminder/invitation to you team members from the project home page. Once you choose the team members to whom you want to send a reminder press the save/submit button or else the invitations will not go. Also ask your friends to check their junk mail.
Can we change the team members, and project title after first initial registration?
Yes, you can change you team members till the time you lock your team. You need to lock the team to start submitting project documents to us.
Where do I submit the project documents?
You can upload the project documents from the project home page.
If we miss the deadline can we submit the documents to you over email?
In case you miss the deadlines for submission, you cannot send the documents to us over email. In this scenarios your project will be consider to be incomplete and you will not be get any credit for that project.
Do we have to use the project templates provided by you?
You have to use the project template provided by us. In case your college required the projects to be documents in another format then we request you to submit both the files in a zip folder. Having the project report in our template makes it easy for our experts to review the projects and ensure that all the information that we are looking for is covered by the students.
Will Microsoft provide us with a mentor for academic projects?
No Microsoft will not be providing you with a mentor for any projects.
Software
What software will I get if I register for Students2Business?
If you college has subscribed to MSDN Academic Alliance (www.msdnaa.net) and has not deployed ELMS then once you are verified we will provide you with the most commonly used software that comes as part of MSDN AA. This includes most of our Operating Systems, Servers and Developer Tools like Windows XP, Windows Vista, SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005. In case you college does not subscribe to MSDN AA then unfortunately we cannot provide you access to the whole set of our offering but we will provide you access to basic software that we think are the most required for working on projects.
What is a verified member?
Any student who registers with us is called a registered member. You can become a verified member by submitting to us a proof of your being a student with the college that you choose while signing up. Any student who has been successfully verified is known as a verified member. The main benefit of being a verified member of the website is access to download software from the S2B program which is not available to registered members.
How do I become a verified member?
To become a verified a member you need to send a scanned copy of your 10th standard mark sheet and your college id card/bonafide certificate to s2bindia@microsoft.com. Please mention the subject as “Verification request for Student2Business Portal”. If your college has an active MSDN AA subscription then once you are verified, you will have access to software available as part of MSDN AA.
To make a big idea take-off, you require to right tools
We at Microsoft know that how you execute on your idea and the tools that you use are as important as the idea itself. We have the tools and products that enable people to gain productivity, to enhance their productivity, their creativity and their imagination. On this website you will find all the tools that you require to execute seamless and transform your idea to reality.
In case your college has MSDN AA (www.msdnaa.net) and you are a verified member of the student2business.co.in website then you will be able to access the software available to you as part of the academic alliance program. In case your college is not a member of the academic alliance we will provide you links to freely available Microsoft tools which you can use while working on your projects.
For more information, contact the DPE Academic Team at the Microsoft office in Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore
Delhi
Microsoft Corporation (I) Pvt. Ltd.
9th Floor, Tower A, DLF Cyber Greens
DLF Cyber Citi, Sector 25A
Gurgaon 122 002
Tel. +91-124-4158000 / 2567000
Fax. +91-124-4158888
Mumbai
Microsoft Corporation (I) Pvt. Ltd.
4th Floor, Windsor Building, Off CST Road
Kalina, Santacruz (East)
Mumbai 400 098
Tel. +91-22-67724000
Fax. +91-22-67724500
Bangalore
Microsoft Corporation (I) Pvt. Ltd.
Signature Building, Ground & 1st floor
Embassy Golf Links Business Park
Off. Intermediate Ring Road, Domlur
Bangalore 560 071
Tel. +91-80-22121212
Fax. +91-80-22121000
You can also interact with us through our forum located at http://forums.microsoft.com/samvaad or write to us at s2bindia@microsoft.com.We recommend that you first post your query or search for an answer at the forums and only if you cannot find that answer there that you mail us. Please use the option to call us as the last resort only.
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